medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (23. February) is the feast day of:
1) Polycarp (d. ca. 155 or ca. 166). One of the leading figures of early Christianity, P. was an elder of the church of Smyrna (today's Izmir, in Turkey) who in time became its bishop. He was a disciple of St. John (which one is not clear), a correspondent of Ignatius of Antioch, and a teacher of Irenaeus of Lyons. According to Jerome, his Epistle to the Philippians was still being read in church services in around the year 400. Late in life P. visited Rome during the pontificate of St. Anicetus. In his great old age he was martyred at Smyrna along with other members of his church.
A largely credible account of P.'s martyrdom survives in the _Martyrium Polycarpi_ (BHG 1556-60). This circulated both separately and, in slightly abbreviated form, in Eusebius' _Historia Ecclesiastica_ (4. 15) and was also available in Latin in Rufinus' translation of Eusebius as well as in at least one independent Latin translation. Directly and indirectly through imitators it had an enormous influence, both in form and in its details, on many other Passiones. P.'s late antique Bios by pseudo-Pionius (BHG 1561), on the other hand, is utterly untrustworthy.
Until at least the early 1950s, P. was venerated at a structure on Mount Pagus, in Izmir but outside of old Smyrna, known as the Tomb of St. Polycarp. An old-photograph view is here:
http://tinyurl.com/22zdlg
And here's a view of the Abbaye de St-Polycarpe, founded ca. 780, near Saint-Hilaire (Aude):
http://tinyurl.com/yphdwg
2) Romana, venerated at Todi (d. early 4th cent., supposedly). According to her Vita (BHL 7296), R. was the Christian-influenced daughter of a Roman city prefect. To avoid marriage and thus preserve her virginity, she secretly left her home and fled with angelic assistance to Mount Soracte. Here she found pope St. Sylvester escaping persecution by hiding in a cave (the standard legend, familiar from the Donation of Constnatine), prostrated herself before him, and sought baptism. Marvelling at R.'s angelic appearance (_nam -- we are told -- decor animi, dignitatem quamdam eximiam corpori affundebat_), the refugee pope granted her wish.
R. -- so saith the Vita -- then headed off in the direction of Todi but soon settled down in a set of caves where she lived in isolation for several months, subsisting on plant food and on water. The odor of her sanctity wafted on to Todi, some of whose Christians came out and formed a little eremitical community around her. R. died here at the age of sixteen, on a 23d of February in some year during the reign of Constantine. Her parents came out from Rome and buried her on the site, where her cult continued to be maintained.
Baronio entered R. in the RM on the basis of a copy of her Vita sent to him from Todi. In composing her entry he used a form of words that generalizes slightly from an inscription at her monastery church on Mount Soracte identifying the spot where R. was baptized by Sylvester, lived a celestial life, and was noted for miracles. That monastery, at today's Sant'Oreste (RM), is now a ruin. Various views of it may be found on these pages:
http://www.peticone.it/il%20monte%20Soratte.htm
http://www.avventurasoratte.com/santaromana.htm
http://www.prolocosantoreste.com/romana.htm
In 1301 remains said to be R.'s were translated to Todi and deposited, along with those of other early Tudertine saints, in its Franciscan church of San Fortunato. Various views of this pile (begun in 1292) are here:
http://www.todi.net/fortunato.htm
http://www.moveaboutitaly.com/umbria/todi_san_Fortunato_it.html
http://tinyurl.com/kl6uj
Interior:
http://tinyurl.com/onxkt
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/345.htm
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/346.htm
3) John Theristes (d. 11th cent.). This less well-known saint of the Regno was an Italo-Greek whose family lived at Cursano, a town near Stilo in the Locride, the strip of territory running along Calabria's southernmost Ionian coast. Muslim raiders killed many of the town's inhabitants (including its head official, J.'s father) and enslaved J.'s mother, who was already pregnant with him. Born in Sicily, J. managed at age 14 to return to Calabria, where he became a monk and worked various miracles. The latter included bringing in by himself a large harvest before a suddenly arising thunderstorm could spoil it. Hence his appellation 'Theristes' (or 'Theristis'), signifying 'Harvester'. The monastery that he founded at today's Bivongi (RC) was after his death named in his honor and perpetuated his cult.
J.'s Bios survives in two versions (BHG 894, 894a). It is thought to have been written in the 12th century and to have been rewritten in the early 13th, probably to document some possessions of J.'s monastery when the latter was re-chartered under Frederick II. Two early modern Latin translations, both rather free (but the one in the _Acta Sanctorum_ is considerably more so), underlie many modern accounts of J. More trustworthy is Silvano Borsari, ed. and tr., "Vita di San Giovanni Terista", _Archivio storico per la Calabria e la Lucania_ 22 (1953), 13-21 ("Introduzione") and 135-51 ("Testi").
In the Latin church, J.'s feast day used to to be 24. February. The latest revision of the RM lists him (without the appellation 'Theristes') for today, his traditional date in Greek churches. At the monastery at Bivongi, overseen since February 1995 by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy, his feast day continues to be the 24th.
An illustrated, Italian-language page on the monastery is here:
http://tinyurl.com/g9t37
And a somewhat closer view of the monastery church (Greek: katholikon; Italian: cattolica), begun in the late 11th century, is here:
http://www.bivongi.com/admin/foto/732_1.jpg
The more recent portions to the left are the remains of the cloister.
Two rear views of the church:
http://www.ortodossia.it/theris.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/6qlkq
An Italian-language description of the monastery's architecture (particularly that of the church) is here:
http://www.sbvibonese.vv.it/sezionet/pag281_t.aspx
And here's the Ecumenical Patriarch, His Holiness Bartholomew I, during a visit in March 2001.
http://www.ortodossia.it/Patriarca.jpg
http://www.ortodossia.it/Patriarca2.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(Romana and John edited from previous postings)
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